Building a New Gaming System

I am thinking about buying this set up. Have heard good things and has good reviews. Is there anything that needs to be added? Anything that can be taken away? I am getting a new system because of games like Witcher 3 and Elder Scrolls Online. Would like to keep price around $3500.

Chassis
Tiki - Standard Black
Chassis Logo Insert
White Light
Chassis Base
Granite - Absolute Black
Power Supply
SilverStone® 450 Watt SFX
Motherboard
Asus® Maximus VI Impact
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 4770K 3.5GHz
Processor Overclock
No Processor Overclock
Processor Cooler
Asetek® Liquid Cooling - Tiki
Memory
1866MHz 2x8GB (16GB)
Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX TITAN 6GB
Sound Card
On-Board Audio
Networking
On-Board Ethernet
Operating System Drive
Crucial® M500 SSD 960GB
Optical Drive
Slot-Load DVD Writer
64-Bit Operating System
Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium
USB Rescue Drive
USB Rescue Drive
System Documentation
Falcon Northwest Manual
Warranty
3 Year Warranty - Tiki

A lot of the price is going to the graphic card I know. I know a bit about gaming systems but I am far from an expert. My little knowledge does more harm then good Thank you for your time and knowledge. I could also go to a local shop and have one built and am torn because I would like to help the local economy.

The 450 watt power supply kinda scares me. Does not seem like it is enough but was the only option. Must have to do with the small size.

You could get a high performance machine for a lot less than $3500. Start by skipping the titan video card. You can get very similar performance levels with a 780gtx at half the cost. I'm using a 770gtx (a third of the cost) and having no performance issues with any game I own.

Absolutely not!
Unless you mean going if possible the same strength with less memory card - no game needs 6Gb really. Unoptimized engines and mods? Yea… Those do exist, but who really cares if only 0.000000000001% of people will be able to run that and even then, will they really bother buying something just because their card is memoryhappy enough to swallow no optimization junk?

A few real suggestions…

1Tb SSD is IMO overkill and too expensive. 240 is more than enough, assuming you want only OS, essential software and a few currently playing games on it. For backups of games you'll replay (steam/gog/origin) buy external 1Tb USB3.0 2.5´HDD, those are utterly cheap nowadays, about 90 bucks on ebay killers, for example:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/NEW-...-HDD-Black-External-Black-with/835137583.html

Kill the internal optical drive, buy USB external one. You'll pay a few dollars more, so what. It's still cheap and you don't have to open the casing when it dies or vacuums too much of dust so it fails not just to read media but is impossible to open it.

Casing I mentioned… Try to find one with at least two USB 3.0 ports in front. I'm not even sure such exist, seen with one 2.0 and one 3.0. Either that or buy also USB 3.0 hub with a powerplug of it's own. Why? Soon everything will move to 3.0 and why would you have to plug the second device(s) on back just because everyone cuts costs by making as short cords as possible?

Thanks Crazy think I will go with the 780 gtx. Its benchmarks are close to the Titan.
Joxer you are right I will just keep a few games at a time on the SSD and the OS. So will check on the 240.

So I am looking at this now.


Here is your customized Tiki system configuration.


System Details

Chassis
Tiki - Standard Black
Chassis Logo Insert
White Light
Chassis Base
Granite - Absolute Black
Power Supply
SilverStone® 450 Watt SFX
Motherboard
Asus® Maximus VI Impact
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 4770K 3.5GHz
Processor Overclock
No Processor Overclock
Processor Cooler
Asetek® Liquid Cooling - Tiki
Memory
1866MHz 2x8GB (16GB)
Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780 3GB
Sound Card
On-Board Audio
Networking
On-Board Ethernet
Operating System Drive
Crucial® M500 SSD 240GB
Data Drive 1
Western Digital® Green™ 2TB
Optical Drive
Slot-Load DVD Writer
64-Bit Operating System
Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium
USB Rescue Drive
USB Rescue Drive
System Documentation
Falcon Northwest Manual
Warranty
3 Year Warranty - Tiki

Also, is like $900 less. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I'll just say that in a local IT magazine they've tested exactly that card model and couldn't praise it more. If you don't care for some strange language, but want to see some pics of the card:
http://www.bug.hr/buglab/nvidia-geforce-gtx-780-ti/96708.aspx

Sorry, don't have the whole article here from paper issue with praises and even if I did, I believe scanning it to put pages online is not legal.

Anyway, recent performance per cost graph makes it definetly more desirable than classic titan:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-8.html
The only question is if you want some crazy resolutions, if you do, you should grab Ti version. If you don't want to turn one wall of your room into a game display, nonTi version is enough.

Man… TW3 incoming… I should buy one of these myself… Sooner or later bloody games will make me go bankrupt.

"green" WD drives suck
1866 MHz RAM is hardly that great given your system's other specs
As alluded to previously, plan on tossing out the 450W power supply and buying a replacement when you receive the system.

Shelling out $2600 for this is still $1000 too much. With the multitude of references available these days (namely Youtube), you could assemble this all yourself in a day or two of very casual work.

I have never assembled a computer before and my IQ is just above a sea slug It would scare me trying to order all the parts myself and assembling it. Though I do have a lot of free time now and it is always good to learn new things.

The Ti version of the GTX 780 is $210 more. Do you think it is worth it? I do not mind spending more if it would help in upcoming games.

Thanks again Joxer I play on pretty standard resolutions so GTX 780 should do. 1920x1080 for most games.

Hastar said:

my IQ is just above a sea slug

Click to expand...

It's not.
If it was, you wouldn't come near RPGwatch. This site is brainkiller for low IQ ppl.
Dunno where exactly they go, maybe HiddenX knows?

Go for Ti only if you'll run games in some extreme resolutions. You don't want a slide show on 4K res.
Here's some more hardware details on Ti version, price/performance and resolutions, but not fresh (3 months old info):
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GTX_780_Ti_SC_ACX_Cooler/28.html
Now that card is a monster, too bad they didn't test it on 3840x2160 so we can see that too.

Wait Drithius aren't you the Michigan fan? You are trying to give me bad advice because you know I went to OSU and love the Buckeyes

As far as I'm concerned you'd be a lot better off building the system yourself and investing some of the extra cash on a screen, a proper IPS panel is going to make a heck of a difference.

I'd also like to echo what's been said on the enormous SSD, the Titan and green WDs.

Hastar said:

Wait Drithius aren't you the Michigan fan? You are trying to give me bad advice because you know I went to OSU and love the Buckeyes

Click to expand...

Possibly confusing me with another resident of the Retiree and hair bonnet state - JDR.

Thanks Kostas I am going to look into a new monitor and I see some good prices on some IPS monitors. Any suggestions?

You are right Drithius it is JDR

How big a monitor do you want? Also, are you planning on overclocking? If not that motherboard is substantial overkill. I've always had luck with plain-jane Intel reference boards in non-oc systems. Also I would grab a 600 watt or so power supply. Otherwise I think the last list of system specs you posted is fairly reasonable (from a cost/benefit perspective). I am definitely on board with everyone else that is telling you to build it yourself. There can be frustrations, but the knowledge gained and the money saved are completely worth it.

Not sure why the hate for the 1TB SSD. the HD is the slowest part in your system especially if your going green and not black or raptor.

I have a 240 SSD for my OS and 2-250's in raid for games and I end up needing to put some games on my 1TB raptor and you can tell a huge difference between the ones on the SSD and the ones on raptor.

Yes, it's expensive but it's a night and day difference. When prices come down a little I'll get 2 1TB SSD's raid them and never look back.

I can honestly so no other upgrade has given such a notable difference for me since my trusty 3dfx card. It doesn't sound like money is that big of a deal for you so get the SSD.

I have 2 Titans in sli, they are great cards but definitely save the money there and go with the 780 or better yet wait a month or 2 for the 880. the only thing I don't like about the 780 is the 3GB vram. that's fine for now but if I'm dropping that kind of money I'd want to have the ability to do 4k down the road. Also consoles have 8GB shared and most pc games are console ports. we've already seen some pretty good recommended spec increases and I would expect them to get higher as more titles are released.

As others have said the 450w PSU sounds scary. I usually but the biggest one I can afford and the take it from system to system.

My 2 cents but I'm a huge Michigan fan so take it for what it's worth.

I have to agree with the others here with regard to the power supply. Personally, I'd go with no less than 700 watts.

Hastar said:

Thanks Kostas I am going to look into a new monitor and I see some good prices on some IPS monitors. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

I can't say I'm closely following the market these days but from what I can remember the Dell Ultrasharp series of IPS panels had an extremely good reputation this side of the Atlantic.
Just ran into a couple of links you might find generally useful:
http://www.logicalincrements.com/
http://pcpartpicker.com/

The dell Ultrasharps are pretty mediocre e-IPS panels with a very grainy film and all around unimpressive image Quality for IPS. They are also slow but sufficient for gaming iirc. We have several laying around the workplace. I guess you can say they are better than the average crappy TN but they will not blow anyone away (and there are some expensive high end TNs out there that are actually better than those for gaming).

On the other hand I am very pleased with my Foris2333. (a bit pricier though)

+1 on a better PSU especially if you get a 780 upwards.